TD Jakes - Hit the Spot
Luke chapter 19, verses 1 through 10 in the NIV reads as follows: Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed the sycamore fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. Or do you believe Jesus is coming your way? This next part of a clause of a sentence has possessed me. When Jesus reached the spot, that’s it right there! When Jesus reached the spot, Zacchaeus had already gotten there, but when Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, «Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.»
So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, «He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.» But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, «Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.» Jesus said to him, «Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.» Can you say amen? Take me back up to the third verse, please. No, verse 5: When Jesus reached the spot, my subject this morning is simply «Hit the Spot.»
Whatever you’ve got to do, whatever you’ve got to crawl through, whatever you’ve got to cry through, whatever you’ve got to pray through, whatever you’ve got to endure, whoever has to hate on you, whoever despises you, whoever has turned against you—none of that is going to matter as long as you hit the spot. You will not spend the rest of your life nor your legacy talking about the obstacles that got between you and the spot. If you hit the spot, you will forget the struggle that preceded the spot. Somebody in here has been commissioned by the Holy Spirit. Somebody watching online has been commissioned by the Holy Spirit to hit the spot. Somebody shout «Hit the Spot!» On your way down to your seat, tell your neighbor, «I gotta hit the spot!»
Holy Spirit, speak in this place today, ratify yourself, establish yourself, extend yourself, magnify yourself, electrify and illuminate, declare yourself in such a dynamic way that we are left awed by the presence of your glory. I thank you in advance for what you’re about to do. I believe you, O God, to have your way. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Dr. Maya Angelou is known to have quoted this statement, which has become a household reflection of some of the many grains of wisdom she left as grains of sand in time that extend beyond death. She says, «When a person tells you who they are, believe them.» This grain of wisdom is quite profound and prolific; it is impactful. It helps us to understand the sociological impact of dealing with people—the psychology behind people. We must understand that when a person tells you who they are, you should believe them—not argue with them, not have such a messiah complex that you’re trying to turn water into wine. Leave that for Jesus. It is what it is. You will notice the enemy tempted Jesus to turn the rock into bread, but if it’s a rock, it’s a rock. Some of us are bent on turning people into what we want them to be rather than accepting them as they are.
So Dr. Angelou concluded, when people tell us who they are, believe them. The reality, however, is that most people don’t know who they are. So you do not often meet people who have a definitive statement that accurately and profoundly describes who they are. Instead, you often find most people with a question mark, not an exclamation point, over their heads because they are uncertain about who they are. They are not foolish or ignorant, merely evolving, transforming—simply vessels of clay spinning on a wheel, touched by a master of whom it does not yet appear what they shall be. Consequently, when we ask them who they are, it becomes difficult for them to define that because they are yet becoming. The process of becoming is paramount; the process is more important than the product.
If the process is not comprehensive, the product will be fragile and broken. We race to the finished product, but we fail to appreciate the process. I personally believe one reason that it became difficult for Adam to withstand the temptation Eve offered him is that Adam was created fully grown. Anytime you are thrust into something without a process, you lack the ability to manage what has been given to you. It is, in fact, the process that teaches you how to manage what has been entrusted to you. Being born a man, rather than being born a baby, evolving into a toddler and ultimately into a young person, means that you engage in a vital development process that helps you self-discover.
To be shaped out of clay and then have a breath of life blown into you, waking up as a man, a husband, and a father is a lot to thrust upon someone who was just a lump of clay a moment ago. Yet, there are people here who will be thrust into situations that do not reflect your background, and it will be difficult to withstand the very challenges you ask God to address because you asked God for the product, not the process. Many times God will oblige you and grant you the product without the process, and you may not realize that the process is what prepares you to endure the weight, pain, and agony of the product itself. I submit for your consideration that 80% of people who win the lottery go broke in two years. They go broke because they are thrust into a lifestyle for which their lives have not been prepared. They don’t have the right attorneys, PR representatives, accountants, or relationships—the accruements that accessorize the level of grandeur to which they have been elevated.
So, there they are, with the Bill Gates' wallet and a Joe Pool’s hall mentality. It is better to enter into a situation gradually. The first man, Adam, was born a man; the second Adam was born of a virgin. Look at how much better he managed temptation! He went through the process: born of a virgin, living in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. At 12 years old, he confounded the doctors and lawyers, then disappeared for 18 years because real greatness must be incubated in isolation. I said real greatness must be incubated in isolation. You don’t want the spotlight on you while you are still evolving, because the critics can destroy you before you become who God wants you to be.
So sometimes God will hide your 18 years of confusion about who you are until you conclude who you are and then bring you back into the spotlight. Tina Turner performed better in her second round than in her first because she had time to incubate during her moment of obscurity. This time allowed her to sort through the linens of her marriage and life, and her trials and failures required privacy for reflection. What I exalt before you is not the promise, but the wilderness. It is not the mandrakes, and it’s not the milk and honey that I came to preach about—it is the significance of the wilderness. The isolation, the frustration, the murmuring, the complaining, and the times you feel like throwing your hands up and walking away are the moments that prepare you for the promised land. If you lack that preparation, you won’t be able to fight off the Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, and all the challenges that accompany what you are entering into.
The artist Andre 3000 puts it like this: «Slow down baby, you’re moving too fast. You’ve got your hands on the wheel and your foot on the gas. You’re about to wreck your future running from your past. Slow down baby, you’re moving too fast.» Now slowing down messages are not easy to preach because people prefer right-now messages: «immediately,» «straightway,» and «suddenly» messages. However, the reality is that in order to have something that lasts a lifetime, you must slow down. Sudden decisions are seldom good decisions. Sudden decisions are often built on emotion, and when that emotion fades, the decision changes, leaving you with regret and pain. I bring all of this before you today because finding out who you are takes time—a long time.
When someone asks you who you are at 15, it is a completely different answer from who you are at 25. Then when someone asks you at 42 who you are, you want to cancel everything you said at 25 because you are still becoming. It takes a long time to be able to answer that question accurately. And, at the risk of disagreeing with Dr. Angelou, please don’t tell me too quickly who you are, because I might believe it, and then my belief would imprison you to who you were. It’s okay to say, «I don’t know yet. I’m becoming. I’m developing. I’m not sure who I am.» It’s okay to say, «I’m still on a journey.» I want to give you language that describes confusion, incompleteness, isolation, and wandering.
You can simply say, «I’m still on a journey. I’m still becoming. I’m still evolving. I’m on the road to greatness. I’m on the road to wisdom. I’m on the road to victory. I’m on the road to mastery. I’m not a maestro yet, but I’m on the road to becoming. I’m not professorial yet, but I’m on the road to becoming.» And I’m satisfied to be on the road. Is anyone okay with not being finished? Because if you’re not okay with not being finished, you will torment yourself trying to be what you are not, striving to live up to an image you cannot fulfill. If you are not satisfied with being on the road, you will build camouflage to conceal your imperfections to appear further along than you are. If you are unwilling to embrace being on the road, you will overspend on appearances to look fitting in a room, lacking the experience and language needed to communicate fully.
Just because you can buy a nice suit doesn’t mean you have a PhD; you have to learn how to give yourself time to evolve. I take the time to set this up because many distinctive things stand out to me about this text. I think we have done Zacchaeus a disservice because his sermon should be preached as often as the woman with the issue of blood. He is in the same situation: rejected by his people, ostracized by his own, alienated, and relegated to a group that has earned the ire of his peers. Yet, he sought to see Jesus. He is in the same situation in that he has to press his way through the crowd in hopes of catching Jesus' path. He might receive something meaningful that is truly life-changing, yet we hardly ever discuss Zacchaeus at all.
I want to bring him to light this morning and talk to you just a moment about Zacchaeus because everything important that happened to him occurred on the road. Now let us put the text in context: Jesus is on a journey. He is on a death march toward the cross; he is marching toward execution, preparing for everything he has taught to be put on trial by the nails in his hands and feet and the piercing of his side. Now we must prove what we’ve been preaching all this time, and he marches toward it perhaps with some anxiety, some trepidation, or perhaps some resentment. There may be turmoil occurring within him. Jesus has to grapple with the understanding that the only way he can validate who he is is to become more vulnerable.
Anytime you have to become more vulnerable to be successful, it becomes increasingly challenging because we are much better at camouflaging vulnerability than allowing our vulnerability to become the canvas upon which greatness is exhibited. You have to be strong enough to be weak. You see, little people can’t allow themselves to be weak; they must always get even because they cannot reveal their smallness. They dress up in their father’s shoes and clothes, parading around as if they hold significance. But just because you’re wearing your father’s shoes doesn’t change the fact that you are merely a five-year-old in oversized shoes—it doesn’t fit, but you wear it to mask your identity. Your vulnerability is on the road, unlike any other road that we will ever see. It kind of reminds me of David being on the road back to build his kingdom after he has taken Judah.
Now, after Israel, he is on the road. Trouble happens on the road. Uzzah reaches out and touches the Ark of the Covenant, and he dies. Trouble happens on the road, and David is delayed for three months out of frustration because trouble happens on the road. You don’t have to remember the Bible story, just remember that trouble happens on the road. Every trouble happens on the road. The woman with the issue of blood was trouble happening on the road. Blind Bartimaeus was trouble happening on the road. Trouble happens on the road. Once you get to a steady place, a safe place, you reach a place of resoluteness and confidence, but while you are in transition, all hell breaks loose. All kinds of turmoil break loose; all kinds of inner pain and insecurity break through. All of a sudden, you have to grapple with who you present yourself to be while wrestling with who you are.
Now, I know you can’t afford to say amen to this because you cannot afford to let anybody know there is any contradiction between what you have presented and what you represent. When the lights are out and the crowd is gone, and the people have gone away, I know you can’t let anybody know on your job all the different voices that are talking on your shoulder while you go into work. I know when you walk into the office, you walk in with total confidence, and nobody will ever realize that you were scared to death of the promotion that God gave you. I also know that you will secretly resent them for not comforting what you couldn’t even show them. I know that your marriages will implode because your real self starved to death while your companion fed your fake self.
I know that loneliness exists no matter how many people are around because it doesn’t matter how many people are around you as long as they don’t know who you really are. We are only comforted when we are transparent, when we find the kinds of relationships where we can be authentic and real and can be who we are, and it needed to be okay. Now, I don’t know if you can handle this, but it needed to be okay for Jesus to be worried. He couldn’t show Matthew and Bartholomew or Judas or any of the rest of them, but he needed to be able to go into the Garden of Gethsemane and wrestle with himself a little bit and say, «You know what, I love you, Daddy, but I don’t know about this cross thing. I don’t know whether I want to do this.
Now, if it be Thy will, pass this bitter cup away from me.» You can’t take everybody into transparency; only a few people can handle who you really are and respect your ability to produce real miracles. But Jesus had the benefit of growing up, growing in the spirit but growing in his humanity—fully God in the spirit but growing like a child in a manger, nursing at his mother’s breast and playing games. It was hard for him to be understood because they kept saying, «Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?» The hardest place to flourish is in the place where you grew up. Oh, you ain’t got to say nothing. The people you grew up with know too much; they remember too much, they’ve seen too much, and they start saying things like, «I knew you when,» «I knew you were,» «I knew you how,» and they can’t know you now because they’re still stuck on when.
So, Jesus is on the road to battle with the angel of death to rip the sting out of its paw, the victory away from the grave. This is not a time he needs distraction because he is headed toward the cross. Everybody in here has had their crosses—it’s hard to be present and polite when you’re headed for a cross. It’s hard to be congenial and maneuverable when you’re headed for a cross. It’s hard to be compassionate and giving when you’re headed for a cross because it is natural to reflect, «Can I handle, not the crown, but can I handle the cross that creates the crowd?»
Meanwhile, Zacchaeus—the Bible takes the rare occasion to tell us that he is short. Why does the Bible, which seldom describes the height of its characters, take the time to point out that he was short? It doesn’t say that about many other characters; only one I can think of off the top of my head is that Saul was tall—he was a head and shoulders above other men. But as a rule, the Bible doesn’t tell us about the physical characteristics of the character, especially this one-off mention of Zacchaeus. Why was it important that he was short? I assume that if you are a short man, you were a short child. Having been a child myself, it is a disadvantage to grow up around other kids when you are shorter than them.
You are more apt to be bullied, more likely to be picked on, more apt to be ostracized, more likely to be criticized, more apt to go home crying to your mama, and more likely to come home with scars and bruises because you are short. So we must then understand that what we call the Napoleon complex is a derivative of the anger that mounts in the victim after they have become weary of being short. They attack with severity; they assume you don’t like them if you come up on them. I know Zacchaeus is short, so we know about his height, and we know about his job. He is neither Hebrew enough nor Jewish enough to be embraced by his brethren because, both culturally and spiritually, he is an outcast.
Bear with me; I’m going somewhere. He is an outcast because he is a tax collector. Now, at first, you would compare that to working with the IRS, but you have to realize that he is not collecting for the Jewish nation; he is collecting for the Roman Empire. So he is a flunky. Let me break it down into African American colloquialism: he’s our Uncle Tom. He’s a big old Uncle Tom who has gotten rich from ripping off, exploiting, and exposing his people. So he has no hiding place among his people, and he is rejected by the Romans because no matter how good you try to act, you’re still not one of us. And he was short. Watch out for people that nobody likes. Watch out for people that have been locked out of the clique and the group and the club.
Watch out for misfit, misplaced people. I know they have some problems, but when they get their problems worked out, God is going to do amazing things in their lives. Are there any people in the room I want to talk to—some people who have never been able to fit in anywhere, at any time with anybody? No matter what you did, no matter what you wore, no matter how you changed yourself, you still didn’t fit, and you had to learn how to be cool with being a misfit—a short tax collector. He cannot reap the benefits of the camaraderie that comes along with being oppressed, nor can he have the fraternity of being the oppressor. In other words, he can’t go to the country club, and he’s not accepted at the barbershop, and he was short.
Oh, any short people in the room, vertically challenged people? The truth of the matter is everybody should have put their hands up because the Bible says we all have sinned and come short—yeah, all have sinned. All have sinned—rich folks, poor folks, well-dressed folks, white folks, black folks, brown folks, Canadian folks, American folks, Nigerian folks, Bahamian folks—all have sinned and come short. And he was short! I want to talk to some people who can admit, «I come up short.»
I come up short as a Christian. I come up short as a preacher. I come up short as a mother. I come up short as a father. I come up short in my life. I come up short as a professional, and I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got because every day I’ve got to deal with the fact that I am. I had to fight harder because I was short. I had to fight longer because I was short. I had to do what I had to do to compensate for the nagging reality that I am short. I’m married, but I’m short. I’m going to mess with you a little bit. I’m a mother, but I’m short, and I deal with the guilt of being short, and I have a dream and a goal and a vision, but I’m short. The worst part about being short is I thought maybe if I wear these heels or maybe if I stood up on a step ladder or maybe if I climbed up on a rooftop or climbed up a tree, maybe you won’t notice that I’m short because we spent our lives trying to hide our vulnerabilities.
So he was short; so he was rich. There is a correlation between short and rich. If I don’t excel at this, at least I excel at that. Or y’all ain’t going to help me see. I’m trying to tell you that oftentimes, what drives you to be successful is the terror of being short. I’m trying to tell you what makes us need to compensate for our inadequacies is the awareness that if you saw who I really was, you wouldn’t like me. And so I bought all of this stuff so you wouldn’t see that I’m short. Now I have to live with the contradiction of I’m powerful, but I’m short. I’m connected, but I’m short. I’m wealthy, but I’m short, and I can’t make either truth go away. I can’t stop being rich and powerful, and I can’t stop being short! Can I talk to some people this morning who are living with contradictions that you can’t talk to anybody about? Because deep down on the inside, they talk about how great you are, but you go home with how short. Come on, where are my short people? Make some noise! Where are my short people? Where are my short people?
Make some noise! I want to talk to some short people. You might be seven foot two, but you’re still short. You might be six foot eight, but you’re still short. You may have more degrees than a thermometer, but you’re still short. In fact, that may be why you got the degree, because if I get enough degrees, maybe you won’t see. Oh, y’all don’t want to talk to me. Let me quit. Maybe you won’t see why my real people. I want some real people. I need about 3,000 real people who will take 30 seconds and praise him in spite of your shortness! Yeah, yeah, yeah! They can come out of the choir, they can come out of the musicians, they can come out the back, they can come out of security. But I need about 3,000 people who knew the odds were against them, and in spite of your shortness, God blessed you to make it anyway! Make some noise in this place!
See, all of you people who can’t clap about being short, you just proved how short you are because your ego won’t allow you to even admit, in a church, that you are short. But your wife knows it, your children know it, your best friend knows it, and you’re just a liar trying to act like you’re not short. So I’m going to give you a repentance moment. All the short people, give God a praise right now! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! Fist bump three people and tell them, «I come up short, I come up short, I come up short, I come up short, I come up short.» I come up short at the bank, I come up short with compassion, I come up short with empathy, I come up short with patience, I come up short with longevity, I come up short with loyalty. Somewhere in my life, I come up short.
So I dress up more. So I stand up more. So I bought me a boat, so I got me a God. So I try to be more distinguished, so I try to be more intellectual because I don’t want you to see that I’m short. And the Bible has told on me that we all have sinned and come short. I wish I had known it was all of us! I thought it was just me, and as long as I thought it was just me, I kind of hated me, and I prayed to be like you. And then I met you and found out you’re short too! Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on! I met you and found out you’re short too. And finding out you were short too is what helped me with me because as I found out how short you were, I found out I wasn’t as weird as I thought I was. Maybe there is no such thing as normal. Maybe we’re on the Wizard of Oz, and we have to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz, because all of us are. I’m tired of counseling husbands and wives who always want to tell me how short their spouse is and never admit that you both are proficient at measuring the wrong person.
Take out your yardstick and measure yourself! You should—that’s why y’all got together. You’re two short people, two messed up, crazy people, two radical people. I saw something on TV the other day; they said one of you is an introvert and quiet, and the other one is crazy. Which one are you? Are you the crazy one or the quiet one? One way or the other, we come up. He was short; he had a wicked job. He was sociologically deprived; he was, no doubt, psychologically introverted. He was wrestling with who he is, but look at him. Tell somebody and tell them, «I heard something.» I know you don’t want nobody to know your gospel, but everybody in here gossips a little bit. Tell them, «I heard some. I heard some. I heard, I heard, I heard it through the grapevine. I heard that Jesus was passing by.» Watch this; you’re so bored. Glory to God!
Watch this: this road he’s on, it’s the Jesus road. It’s leading to Jerusalem, and it has a traffic flow. He decides, «I may be short, and I may be rejected, and I may be ostracized, but I’m gonna get in the flow.» Somebody in this room, you’re still not perfect, you’re still wrestling with stuff, you’re still trying to figure it out, but at least you’re on the right road. Come on, give Him praise if you’re on the right road. I’m on the right road; I may be short, but I ain’t deaf. I may be short, but I heard Jesus was passing by. If I could find the right spot… I need a spot, y’all! I’m trying to find a spot where shortness doesn’t matter. That’s why worship has become so popular in the modern church today, because nobody measures the height of the worshiper. You can be high, you can be low, you can be rich, you can be poor, but if you open your mouth and start praising God, nobody measures the height of the worshiper.
That’s why when we say worship, you get all kinds of people: worshipers who’ve been fasting, people who’ve been praying, people who’ve been partying. People who’ve been getting along, people who haven’t been getting along can get caught up in worship because worship makes up the difference between where I want to be and where I am. Give me 30 seconds of worship. Come on, I understand—some of y’all can’t worship because you’re too dignified, and that’s okay. Go ahead and be dignified, but see, when you’re short, you get bullied. But when you worship, you get help, for the Bible said that the angels of the Lord encamp about them that fear Him. If you’re feeling kind of short this morning, you need to open your mouth and give God some praise until the angels come and stand by your side.
Yeah, I’m short, but I can praise Him. I may be short, but I can clap my hands. I’m short, but I can lift Him up. I’m not there yet, but I can give God the glory. I haven’t accomplished everything, but I still know how to praise Him. I count on myself forever apprehended, but I still give Him the glory. Don’t let the suit fool you; I will break out in praise. Don’t let the head do fool you; I will praise the Lord. In fact, I got to praise Him because I know I’m short, and if I don’t praise Him, I can’t get high enough to be recognized. But when I—oh, when I just begin to give God the praise, I start standing up tall. Somebody stand up tall and give Him a crazy praise! Something is happening to you just because you’re in the flow. Just because you’re in the flow, just because you’re on the right road, just because you’re in the right direction, just because Jesus is coming your way.
Can I tell you to tell somebody, «Jesus is coming your way»? You may not see Him right now, but He’s coming your way. He’s headed in your direction; He’s coming up your street. He’s coming into your circumstance; He’s coming into your situation; He’s coming into your dilemma. If you just stand still and wait on the Lord, somebody spin around—Jesus is coming your way! He’s coming into your storm; He’s coming into your pain; He’s coming into your shortness; He’s coming into your crisis. Oh, here He comes! Oh, here He comes! He’s the devil leader! Oh, here He comes! I got a prophetic word for somebody: oh, here He comes! You’ve been trying to fight this by yourself, but oh, here He comes! Oh, here He comes! Oh, here He comes! Don’t run; don’t duck; don’t hide; just wait on Him because you’re in the flow. You’re in the flow. There’s a flow in the Spirit.
The Bible calls the Holy Spirit a flow of living water. If you get in the flow, it will change your life. For the next land of this message, I need a thousand people that are getting in the flow. You may be dirty, name it, but get in the flow! You may have leprosy, but get in the flow! You may be blind, but get in the flow! Because if there’s any healing, it’s not going to come because of how tall you are. It’s going to come because you got in the flow. Zacchaeus was hated; they called him a sinner. He worked for the Romans; he ripped off the Jews. The Jews hated him; the Romans didn’t respect him, and he was short. But he got in the flow. Sometimes God doesn’t bless you because of how gifted, talented, or intellectual you are. You just happen to get in the flow. You didn’t get that job because you were the most qualified; you just happened to get in the flow.
If you get in the flow where Jesus is passing by, something amazing is gonna happen in your life. That’s why I can’t go to church with people who are trying to be cute because cute can’t heal cancer. But if I get in the flow, God will open up the windows of heaven and pour me out a blessing I won’t have room to receive. If there’s anybody in this room that needs a miracle, get in the flow! So let me hurry; let me hurry. You sit down, because you’re going to make me holla. If you make me holler, you’re gonna make me cry. If you make me run, you’re gonna make me shout. If you make me shout, you’re gonna make me holla because I don’t mind hollering. I’m short, and if God is gonna get my attention, I gotta do something radical. I’m too short to be cool; I gotta do something radical to get God’s attention. And so the story goes that the short man found a tall tree.
There is a way out of this for you; you just gotta find a tall tree. The Bible says that this rich man climbed the tree. Let me tell you something: rich folk don’t climb trees. Rich folk hire people to climb trees. I got some rich folk in here, and there’s not a rich person in here that climbs trees because that’s why you got rich—so you wouldn’t have to climb the tree. You don’t trim your trees; you don’t cut off dead limbs; you call somebody immediately. Zacchaeus was rich, but the richness was not enough because sometimes the money doesn’t pay for the poverty of living with the reality that trials come up, and every night I lay down. I don’t lay down as a person at six foot two; I lay down short. But if I were not short, I would not be eligible for grace.
That’s why the Bible said, «Let the weak say, 'I’m strong.' Let the poor say, 'I’m rich, '» because grace is the differential between where I am and what I am called to be. Grace is the equalizer; it makes up the hedge and closes up the gap. Grace enables me to appear taller than I am. Now, I gotta live with you defining me by what grace has done. I like it, and I have to accept it as my identity while I deal with the reality that if it were not for God’s grace—oh yeah, go help me! If it were not for God’s grace, I’m so short. The Bible says He came to the sycamore tree, and He came to a tree that Jesus had cursed just a few pages back. Jesus cursed a fig tree. Now Zacchaeus, whose name incidentally means pure, was short but pure.
Say your lesson: messed up but innocent; wrong but right; guilty but innocent. Y’all don’t understand the dichotomy of the human experience. That’s why I can’t tell you who I am; you don’t have time to hear. I can tell my therapist by the hour, but when you say how I’m doing, you don’t really want to know because I would have to say I’m good, but I’m bad, and I’m excited, but I’m scared to death. I’m nervous, but I got faith and believe God, but I’m worried to death. And I’m righteous, but I’m freaky; I’m holy, but I’m broken, and I’m sanctified, but I’m wild. Y’all not gonna talk to me. Come on, where are the real people at? I just need some real people. Come on, I don’t need no religious people; I need some real people that are filled with conflict and things that are too difficult to explain, so we just say, «I’m fine, I’m fine.» It’s easier than telling you I’m fragmented; I’m broken. If you flip me off, I go crazy. I got a temper like a lunatic, but I got a heart like pure gold. I give you the shirt off my back, but if you steal $20, I’ll run over you with the car.
See, I don’t have time to explain. Come on, real people! We got to take over. So Zacchaeus climbs a tree that Jesus would curse all because he wants to be in the spot, and he cannot wait until Jesus gets there to hit the spot. See, y’all say when Jesus comes, «I’m going to the spot.» But when Jesus comes, it’s going to be too late to go to the spot. You gotta already be in the spot before Jesus passes by. And the reason your life is a mess is that you think you get to act a fool until you see Jesus, and then you’re gonna hit the spot. But no, you gotta hit the spot while Jesus is still coming. Watch this, and I’ll quit; I’ll quit cause I’m messing around. I feel like preaching, and if I mess around and feel like preaching, it’s going to be a problem because I feel something down on the inside that’s pushing me right now.
When I start preaching—then when I start talking about being short, I just opposed being short against trees. I start to realize that every major redemptive thing that God would ever do, He would do it on a tree. It started in the Garden of Eden with the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and it ended up on the cross when Jesus was hung out on the cross. And here we are studying Zacchaeus. He climbs a type of tree that has been cursed, and he waits on Jesus to pass by. Look at somebody and say, «Hit the spot.» Once you get in the spot, watch this: y’all listen, this is good. Once you get in the spot, don’t let no devil in hell move you out of the spot. I know the blessing ain’t come yet, but stay in the spot. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and stay in the spot. Neither give place to the devil.
See, the devil is after territory; he’s trying to move you out of your spot. I don’t know who I’m talking to, but the Holy Ghost sent me here to tell you, «Don’t you move out of your spot! Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.» It might not be working right now, so I’m out of time. I got to close. Zacchaeus climbs the tree to see Jesus at the bottom of the tree, and all Zacchaeus had to do was hit the spot. Now the Bible says Zacchaeus didn’t come to the spot; he actually got in the flow and created the spot. When it says somebody came to the spot, it wasn’t Zacchaeus; it was Jesus. So God says if you position yourself right, Jesus is gonna come to the spot. Oh, come on, come on, come on. I wish I had time; y’all messing with me now. Y’all messing with me now. Watch this: Jesus didn’t come to the person; He came to the spot. Jesus didn’t come to the woman with the issue of blood; He came to the spot.
Jesus didn’t come to blind Bartimaeus; He came to the spot. Abraham wasn’t looking for the ram; he came to the spot. Whenever you get in the spot, you don’t have to worry about the blessing because the blessing will always come to the spot. Your question needs to be, «Lord, help me to hit the spot!» I may be ugly, but I’m in the spot. I may be broke, but I’m in the spot. I may be hated, but I’m in the spot, and I ain’t gonna let no devil in hell push me out of the spot. So Pastor Cheryl, the Bible says—the Bible, the Bible, the Bible, the Bible, the Bible—says the Bible—the Bible says that Zacchaeus didn’t come to the spot, but Jesus came to the spot. Can I tell you that Jesus is coming to the spot?
And all—listen! All you have to do, you don’t have to be taller, you don’t have to be smarter, you don’t have to be richer, all you got to do is hit the spot because He’s coming to the spot. He told Abraham, «There’s a spot where the miracle will work. If you offer your son up on any other mountain, he’s gonna die, but go to the place I will show you.» When you get in the right place, provision is in place; come on, somebody! I don’t have rams on any other mountain; I only have rams on the mountain—that is the spot! Somebody holler, «Hit the spot!» You’ve been thinking that there’s something about your talent that makes you exceptional. I hate to hurt your feelings, but there are people in jail who can outsing you. There are people sleeping under bridges who are better architects than you are. There are people shooting up dope who would be better CEOs than you are. The only reason you got where you are is that you hit the spot.
Here’s a quick exchange, and I’ll stop because we’re going to eat now. Zacchaeus is up in a cursed tree, looking down at a blessed Jesus. The blessed Jesus says, «You’ve got this backward; I am supposed to be on the cursed tree. In order to straighten this out, you must trade places with me. I have to go up on the tree so you can walk down on the ground. If you let me go up on the tree, I’ll draw all men unto me.» Can I preach this word? I need to preach this word. I need to tell somebody, «Come down out of your tree!»
Zacchaeus is a sinner; he can hang on the tree, but he can’t redeem anybody from it. It has to be a righteous man who dies for sinners. If Jesus goes to the tree with him, he will have made the mistake of the first man, Adam. The first man, Adam, died with his bride; the second man, Adam, died for his pride. So, Jesus says we both can’t be on this tree together; you must come down so that I can go up. Who am I preaching to in the room? Is there anybody here who understands this is good preaching? If you know this is good preaching, give God praise right now!
I have to quit; God wants to trade places with you. Here is the challenge: you won’t come down out of your tree because you showed it, and you built the tree so that nobody could see you’re short. Watch this—the very thing you’re hiding is the very thing God wants. People wanted you to be taller, but God loves short! So God says to Zacchaeus, «If you will give up what you built to make yourself look good, if you will let go of your desperate need for influence to compensate for your deep intrinsic insecurity, I blessed you because you were insecure. I bless you because there were dents in your armor. I blessed you because there were cracks in you, and now you’re up on the tree trying to act like you’re that tall. You know you aren’t that tall! I don’t recognize you in that tree! If you come down off your high horse and humble yourself—oh, I’m trying to stop—if you humble yourself, God says, 'I will exalt you! '
What it is, is a peek at substitution: Zacchaeus comes down so Jesus can go up. God says, „If you come down out of your tree and become cool with being short, I can handle you being short better than I can you camouflaging your shortness in a tree. I don’t recognize you in the tree; I loved you when you weren’t important! I loved you when you were nervous! I loved you when you were scared to death! I loved you when you were insecure! I loved you when you were on your face! I loved you when you weren’t worthy! I loved you when you laid on your face and stopped me early in the morning because you thought, 'Without me, you can do nothing.' And now you’re so important; I cannot give you what I want to give you until you come down out of your tree.“
So he says, „Zacchaeus, listen, I’m closing. Stand up, stand up because I’ve got to close.“ He says, „Make haste and come down!“ Don’t gradually come down; he says, „Make haste! Come down in a hurry! Don’t gradually forgive; make haste and come down! Don’t gradually transition; make haste and come down! Don’t gradually evolve; make haste to come down! Don’t protect your image; make haste and come down!“ So Zacchaeus made haste and came down, and then Jesus says to him what he never said while he was in the tree. As long as he was in the tree, Jesus never offered to stay at his house. Jesus says, „I will not live with you until you come down. If you come down out of your tree, I will come and stay with you.“
When Zacchaeus made haste to come down, everybody talked about how he was a sinner. „Jesus doesn’t know who he’s living with! How could Jesus go stay at his house? He’s a tax collector!“ None of that was the problem. The problem was Zacchaeus had a complex about his insecurities that he camouflaged. I have learned that most people’s behavior is dyslexic; weak people are generally mean to protect the lamb they wore. Arrogant people: whenever you meet a man that’s arrogant, don’t respond to his arrogance because his arrogance is his tree. His insecurity is what drove him up the tree. So the reason he’s trying to be important is that he’s short, and you’re attacking him as if he were a tree person, annoyed by his arrogance rather than ministering to his insecurity.
I’m not a billionaire; I might not ever be a billionaire, but I have friends who are billionaires. I’ve found out that the only people who dress rich are poor folks. Billionaires wear tennis shoes and jeans from Target while you have Gucci bags and Louis Vuitton. You know why the billionaire dresses down? Because they don’t need a tree! You know why poor people will spend their last dollar to get a rich bag? Because they don’t want you to know how short they are! You know how people who need love act like they don’t have time for love? „I’m a career woman. I’m a career man. I don’t need anybody.“ I’ve got to shut up. You know as well as I do that money isn’t company at two o’clock in the morning!
So to all my tree people, if you come down this morning out of your tree, Jesus will stay at your house. As I close this morning’s message, I just wonder if there’s anybody who has the courage. It isn’t easy; it takes a lot of courage to come down out of the tree. The tree makes you look good; the tree makes you look tall; the tree puts you in a category of exceptionalism. Why do you think he was a tax collector in the first place? He wanted to be important. You think you’re ambitious? No, you’re broken! You are trying to use ambition to add value to your life. And as long as you need a thing to make you valuable, it’s an admission that you are not valuable.
I’m talking to you. I’m talking to you! The tree has become your idol. You praise God with your mouth, but you won’t let anybody touch your tree because your tree is your god. Where is my musician? Did he die? Your tree! Call the paramedics! Your tree! Come on, stay with me! I’m human; I already told you I’m complicated. I can quote scriptures and go off at the same time. I’m weird, just like you! Look at me. Here’s the question: will you hold on to your tree at the expense of losing Jesus? Will you spend the rest of your life climbing up on stuff to give you a strategic advantage, or will you trust God for your shortness?